Books by Gary Graybill

Monday, August 25, 2014

Some Stories from the WTF Files

Time to look at some real news stories from around the world and wonder if God didn’t create mankind to give him something to watch late at night for a good laugh…

A man was hospitalized in Shreveport, Louisiana, after being carried away by a wind gust as he held onto a mattress in the back of a pickup truck on Interstate 49. He suffered road burns and fractures.

Tom Lakin is challenging State Farm in a courtroom, claiming that the sexual abuse he was convicted of was "unintentional" and that therefore his homeowners' insurance ought to have covered any claims by the victim. He said he had no idea that serving minors alcohol and drugs and encouraging them to have sex with each other would lead to their later sexual exploitation by other adults.

The Alaskan government is scrambling to fulfill its obligation to welcome native communities' votes on a state tax resolution in August. That means paying translators (at up to $50 a hour) to set out the measure for communities using the languages Yup'ik, Inupiak, Siberian Yupik, Koyukon Athabascan and Gwich'in Athabascan. (The tax measure must also be available on audio -- for those communities that rely on the "oral tradition.") For example, the yes-or-no tax question in Yup'ik is "Una-qaa alerquun ciuniurumanrilli?"

Missouri state Sen. Rob Schaaf (who is a medical doctor) was credited with leading the resistance to the state's establishment of a database of controlled-substance prescriptions. (Sen. Schaaf champions "patient privacy" over curbing the wanton overuse of pain medications, even though the other 49 states have such databases.) In an earlier debate, Dr. Schaaf suggested drug abuse is self- regulating: "If (drug abusers) overdose and kill themselves, it just removes them from the gene pool."